May 21st ‘Doomsday’ Prediction Aftermath: Read & Discuss

Camping preached that the world will end on Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 6 p.m. local time, beginning with a terrible earthquake and the rapture of 200 million of God’s believers.

Then, for the next five months, the world will experience more apocalyptical natural disasters until it’s destroyed on October 21, 2011.

On Saturday, 6 p.m. local time rolled around in New Zealand, then in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, East Coats of the US, and finally in California, where Camping lives.

Nothing happened.

Camping and his followers must now deal with their ‘Doomsday’ failure.

Camping himself went in hiding on Saturday.On Sunday, he emerged from his house and told IBTimes that he’ll make a statement on Monday about his failure.

He seemed to have accepted his failure.“I’ve got to live with it, I’ve got to think it out,” he said.

Meanwhile, Robert Fitzpatrick, a Camping follower who blew his life savings to advertise the ‘Doomsday’ prediction message, suffered public humiliation and jeering as he waited for the fateful hour in Time Square, New York City.

“I didn't water my plants, I didn't do my dishes before I left. I didn't expect to go back home, said Fitzpatrick after the 'Doomsday' failure, before he headed back to his Staten Island home from Time Square, reported the New York Post.

Like Fitzpatrick, many of Camping’s followers are left utterly unprepared for the failed apocalypse; many of them have quit their jobs, abandoned their families, sold their material possessions, and budgeted their money to last only until May 21st.

Calvary Bible Church, a local church near Camping’s Family Radio compound, sought to reach out to these followers, who were devastated emotionally, spiritually, and financially.

Timothy Dalrymple, editor of an online evangelical portal called Patheos, also tried to reach out to them.

“Your heart was in the right place. This may sound like a minor matter, or it may sound like condescension, but I assure you it’s not. This is a rare and exceedingly important thing.It’s perfectly right to yearn for the day of Christ’s return,” he said to Camping’s followers.

Meanwhile, Ed Stetzer, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Research, called for Harold Camping to publicly repent for his failed prediction.